End of the Week Changes

By jeffpenner, on February 21st, 2017

Good Tuesday.

We are in for a very nice day of weather, near perfect, with highs around 70° a light wind and total sunshine. Wednesday will be warmer ahead of a significant change back to where we should be for this time of year. Let’s go through this day by day.

TODAY: Hour by Hour Forecast The record high is 75° set in 1935.

TODAY: Surface map. A weak trough will be to our west, with a storm system to our southeast. This puts us in an area of light winds.

WEDNESDAY: The trough moves east and we see more of a southwest wind. This will allow us to warm up to close to 80°. The record is 73° set in 1982, we should smash that. The cold front to the north will head south and stall near I-70 by Thursday as a storm system forms.

THURSDAY (Temperatures): Look at this temperature difference forming across the Plains. The storm is forming, but we will still be in or very close to the warm air. Highs will be in the 60s and 70s. The 20s, and much colder air is lurking to the north.

THURSDAY (Precipitation): The main storm will be tracking to our north, so we may see a few showers/thunderstorms midday. Otherwise, we will be dry with a snowstorm along I-80.

THURSDAY NIGHT: The cold front will be sweeping through and there may be some light sleet or rain/snow mix in the northwest corner of Missouri. Any rain will be well east and northeast of our area.

FRIDAY: Reality check! The cold air will be sweeping in. We will be cloudy and windy with perhaps a flurry, but the main feature will be the change to colder air. A hard freeze is likely Friday night which is a good thing so we can stop the tree budding process.

There are 3-4 more systems to watch February 26-March 10. One or two of them may bring us some snow, so winter is not quite over yet. At this time, we do not see any big storm systems.